1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein pertains to upholstered furniture seating assemblies and particularly to resilient assemblies which are suspended between rigid furniture components such as found on chair or sofa frames.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Objectives of the Invention
Furniture manufacturers have constantly improved their products and manufacturing techniques through the years in an attempt to provide consumers with comfortable, durable and reasonably priced upholstered furniture. Metal coil and sinuous springs have been used for many years in chair and sofa frames to the satisfaction of the purchasers. However, as labor costs have sharply risen, manufacturers are turning to a variety of constructions, some of which utilize fabric straps and webbings in place of the usual metal springs. Certain decking or suspension fabrics have been well accepted whereas others have been either too stiff or too resilient for widespread acceptance. Also, prior spring assemblies for furniture seating of the all metal type are extremely heavy and make handling and shipping difficult and expensive.
Thus, with the disadvantages and problems associated with prior art seating constructions and assemblies, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide a seating suspension assembly which will provide the user with comfort and durability over a period of years.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a seating suspension assembly which can be mass-produced in continuous form and delivered to the furniture assembly area in a convenient-to-handle roll.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a seating suspension assembly which can be easily, quickly affixed to a furniture frame by a single worker.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a resilient seating suspension assembly and method which may include covered, pretensioned coil springs, fibrous batts or a polymeric foam.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a method for forming a suspension assembly utilizing a fabric top strap and a fabric base strap which are joined in parallel alignment to create a pocket therebetween for receiving a coil spring or other resilient member.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide a seating suspension assembly which provides a "crowned" seat.
It is also an objective to provide a seating suspension assembly which has a pre-loaded or tensioned center.
It is another objective of the invention to provide a seating suspension assembly with different tensions along the top, center and bottom.
Still another objective of the invention to provide a suspension assembly which is easy to install by not requiring extreme tensioning on the flexible straps.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.